Wednesday, April 25, 2018

When anyone
asks me who’s my favorite author I’m at a loss to pick one person out of
lifetime of reading. I’ve gone through a lot of phases, like reading the
science fiction greats, focusing on animals of various kinds, and the searching
out the books behind the movies I’ve seen. This amounts to odd assortments of
things for pleasure, school, and work. I liked things and found value in my
reading, but I can’t say I found an all-time standout favorite among all those
authors.

Now, when I
decided to write a novel and chose it to be a mystery I launched into a
campaign of reading other mystery writer’s first books, which is where
discovered Sue Grafton’s work.

I read the
first three letters of the alphabet series before skipping on to later letters.
I admired her skill at descriptions, her attention to details, and her grasp of
human nature, and I still have S on my bookshelf because of her author’s note
about maps. After that, I took another break.

Then I heard
she won’t be finishing the alphabet; there would never be a Z. So, when I found
a copy of Sue Grafton’s X marked down and too much of a bargain to walk away
from, I had my chance to get caught up with Kinsey Millhone.

I totally
enjoyed the experience of reading a mature author in high form. Grafton sets an
excellent example of how to weave multiple characters, plots, and subplots
together into a satisfying whole. She never compromised her standards.

Here’s a
list of quotes I had presence of mind to flag:

·“…
he had a wen beside his nose …" [It’s like a boil.]

·“Memory
is subject to a filtering process that we don’t always recognize and can’t
always control. We remember what we can bear and we block what we cannot.”

·“Silence
allowed me time for reflection and helped to quiet the chatter in my head.”

·“I
pressed the button that lowered the driver’s-side window and then put both
hands on the steering wheel where he could see them. I could write a primer on
how to behave in the presence of law enforcement, which basically boils down to
good manners and abject obedience.”

·“They’re
disconnected and cold and lack any semblance of humanity. Symptoms typically
manifest in adolescence, which is when you start seeing aggression and
antisocial acting-out.”

·“You
can’t make someone else do anything, even if you know you’re right.”

·“Just
because I couldn’t solve my own problems doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have a go at
yours.”

Since Sue
Grafton is the one author I’ve come back to more than once, or twice, I have to
say the verdict is in: she’s my favorite.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

I had a blast from the past from
the Sunday, Apr. 8, Dispatch/Argus newspaper. Their “Today in History” featured
Rev. W. S. Nordstrom as the 50-year-old story.

I discovered Rev. Nordstrom’s
unique Medicine Show at the Henry County Historical Museum back in 2010 and
wrote about it for the Galva News.

This is what I submitted:

The Medicine Show

By Mary Davidsaver

At the Henry County
Historical Museum in Bishop Hill, tucked away in the back of room B, visitors
will find a glass case with an odd assortment of memorabilia.

The case contains a variety
of patent medicine bottles, a yellow vest and a small 4-hole Hohner harmonica,
among other things.

Nearby an old button
accordion rests on top of a wooden box with “Bumstead’s Worm Syrup” stenciled
on the front.

It all comes together as soon
as Roger Anderson slips a CD into a TV set and turns it on.

“I had CDs made from a video
tape of Wayne Nordstrom,” he explained. “I thought this would add interest to
his bottle collection.”

It seems that the late Rev.
Nordstrom, the Methodist pastor put out to pasture, had more interests than
just flying his airplane around the countryside visiting the churches in the
Central Illinois Conference.

His program, recorded in
Mesa, Arizona in 1998 and titled “Laughter is the Music of the Soul,” features
jokes, music and humorous stories about the bottles he found under his house.

Nordstrom had ventured under
the 8-bedroom farm house that lies between Galva and Bishop Hill when his wife
complained that natural “air conditioning” wasn’t a good thing to have in the
wintertime.

While down there he
discovered a trash heap sealed within the brick foundation. He found nearly 500
bottles of all kinds, dating from 1850 to 1890.

Apothecary and patent
medicine bottles of all sizes, shapes and colors, many with their labels
intact, comprised the majority of the hoard.

His curiosity got him started
doing research. He wanted to figure out why there was a need for Dr. Warner’s
Liver Cure or Dr. Foley’s Blood Purifier. There seemed to be a great many
medicinal elixirs for the stomach, bladder, liver and kidneys. Some liniments
promised immediate relief, but remained vague about what kind of relief one
would find.

A personal favorite was
Pierces’s Pleasant Purgative Pellets. “It does the work of dynamite without the
danger.”

Then there’s Mexican Mustang
Liniment. Guaranteed to “heal ‘em up and head ‘em out.”

The list of ingredients for
some of the so-called “cures” is impressive: opium, chloroform, ether,
turpentine, cod liver oil. These on top of an assortment of roots, leaves, and
bark. And alcohol—lots of alcohol.

It’s enough to make one really
appreciate the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

Nordstrom wondered how people
could be so gullible. But he reminds us that these were down to earth people
desperately trying to cope with real problems. Look at us today; we are still
taking drugs and herbs to manage our problems. He asked us to imagine what it
would look like if we kept our trash under our house.

He also brings up the point
that maybe folks back then didn’t want a cure at all. He found 50 bottles of a
particular consumption cure. That’s a lot of horehound syrup—along with more
than a fair amount of alcohol.

Nordstrom probably wasn’t
joking when he called some of this stuff “hooch.” The high alcohol content may
have made it a socially acceptable way to do a little imbibing. It certainly could
have delivered the cure it promised; after drinking it, no one would want to
cough by an open flame.

Toward the end of Nordstrom’s
performance, with the help of the button accordion and his wife on the piano,
he led the audience through several tunes and sing-a-longs.

The retired Reverend put on
quite a successful version of a medicine show. It’s hard not to applaud him
right along with the audience.

Stop by the Henry County
Historical Museum for more information and take a look at the medicine bottles.
Copies of the CD are available for purchase.

About Me

Mary Davidsaver is a graduate of the University of Iowa and a retired jewelry designer. She has written for local newspapers since 2007. She is a member of the Midwest Writing Center who has won two Iron Pen first place awards. In 2013, she was the first local writer to win the Great River Writer's Retreat Contest. She has published her first novel with MWC Press.
Mary was presented with the Outstanding Literary Artist Award at the May 24, 2017 annual meeting of the Midwest Writing Center.